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TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Students discuss religious topics in a small group. (Photo courtesy of tcuwesley.org)
Wednesday nights at TCU’s Methodist campus ministry provide religious exploration and fellowship
By Boots Giblin, Staff Writer
Published Mar 27, 2024
Students at the Wesley said they found community on Wednesday nights.

Religion professor: Recent natural disasters not a sign of the apocalypse

Hurricane Irene, Texas wildfires, earthquakes, and tsunamis. These natural disasters don’t have freshman Jake Murphey fearful of the world coming to an end anytime soon.

Murphey, athletic training major who is currently taking a religion class, said there is no way to determine when the world will end by the acts that take place in nature.

“In the Bible, it says we will not know,” he said. “I’m a professed Christian and I believe that to be true.”

The recent natural disasters that have taken place don’t compare to the actual day of Judgment the book of Revelation describes, he said.

“The entirety of Revelation will be at a much greater scale than it is now,” he said.

Associate Professor of religion Janet Spittler agrees.

“We have no idea when it will come and whenever it comes, it’s going to be a big surprise,” she said.

In the first book of Thessalonians states the second coming of Jesus Christ will come like a thief in the night and destruction will come suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman.

Those who believe that the calamities that have taken place in the world align with scripture, aren’t completely accurate, she said.

“As far as I know, there are no tornadoes mentioned in the Bible,” she said. “Earthquakes are sometimes mentioned in the Bible as a sort of dramatic cataclysmic events but earthquakes are incredibly common. Earthquakes happen on Earth everyday. ”

Professor of religion Jack Hill said though many interpret the book of Revelation as dark and tragic, the book actually can be seen as the opposite.

“Revelation is a very powerful and optimistic take on how God is with us even in these crisis point,” he said.

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